@ Michael
RE: I updated the plugin and it was automatically deactivated and disappeared from my plugins page.
Which plugin? The core Connections plugin?
RE: I tried reinstalling after renaming the existing connections folder and received the below error upon activating the plugin.
You can not just rename the folder, you have to move it out or delete from the plugins
folder otherwise that will cause conflicts in WP as it tries to install/upgrade/activate plugins and themes.
RE: Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.
That is truly odd because that error is being called from a core WP file, not a file from within Connections or any of its addons.
Check the permissions of this file:
/wp-content/install.php
within the WP install. The error states the permissions do not allow it to be opened by /wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php
Connections does make reference to the /wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php
file on install/upgrade right before using a couple core WP functions to check that its table exist and created them if they do not.
So if the permissions on the /wp-content/install.php
make it so it can not be opened, that would explain why you would get this error which would occur for any other plugin referencing /wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php
to access its functions.
Hope this helps, let me know.